Our Ingredients Philosophy

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At Lumen & Lather Co., we believe luxury doesn’t require a long ingredient list. Wherever possible, we keep our formulas composed of a few considered elements: quality plant oils and butters, lye, water or goat milk, and carefully chosen aromatics.

Our soap studio is in a period of transition. We work with several soap making traditions, including slow-cured cold process bars, hot process soaps, and glycerin styles. Some formulas are intentionally minimal—built from just a small number of oils and goat milk for a dense, creamy lather and a gentle cleanse. Others, such as our luminous glycerin bars and certain specialty collaborations, naturally have more detailed ingredient lists, but are still composed with the same care and intention.

As our collection evolves, our core soap studio is moving increasingly toward bars scented with essential oils or left beautifully unscented. These formulas are designed to feel understated, skin focused, and closely aligned with our “less, but better” approach.

For certain collections, such as our Lu(e)men Collection boxes and select collaborative or wholesale pieces, we may use high quality fragrance oils to achieve specific, more complex scent profiles or to match our candle offerings. Whenever a product is made with fragrance oil rather than essential oil, it is clearly labeled as such.

We aren’t fully organic yet, but we source thoughtfully, prioritize locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, and choose suppliers we trust. As we grow, we’ll introduce more organic ingredients and limited “reserve” batches that reflect that next step.

Above all, we value clarity and honesty. Every product page lists full ingredients. If a bar is unscented, we say so. If a formula is more complex or uses fragrance oil, we say that, too. Every label is a promise: considered ingredients, and small-batch products made to feel as refined as they look.